INX International Ink Co. officials broke ground Dec. 5 on a new 62,000 square-foot facility in Lebanon, OH. Local dignitaries were joined by the INX management team - led by President and CEO Rick Clendenning - at the site about 30 miles northeast of Cincinnati. When completed in late 2014, the building will serve as a manufacturing center primarily for solvent ink packaging products and will also produce three-piece metal decorating, UV/EB and some water-based flexographic ink products.

“After two years of analyzing potential locations and then working with the people here in Warren County, we are looking forward to having our new facility operational by this time next year,” said Clendenning. “INX has a long history in the Cincinnati area, and with demand for our solvent ink packaging line resulting in significant growth, we needed to make sure our manufacturing capacity kept ahead of that growth. This new facility gives us all the modern amenities we need and flexibility to expand in the future. The City of Lebanon and all of their various departments, Warren County, The State of Ohio and The Schueler Group, including Bunnell Hill Construction, have worked extremely hard for us to make this project move forward.”

Located in the Lebanon Commerce Center business park on Homan Road, the new building will be constructed on 11 acres not far from Interstate 71. John Hrdlick, chief operating officer of INX International Ink Co., said that besides the greater manufacturing space, the new complex will also contain a full service lab for color management and development, quality control and testing purposes, and accommodations for employee training and customer meetings.

“We evaluated our facilities and our ability to increase capacity and efficiencies, and determined the best way to service the market was to construct a new facility,” said Hrdlick. “INX is currently producing 37 million pounds of solvent ink for packaging and we project production to be at 42 million pounds in the next couple of years. Our capacity for this product line will increase to 77 million pounds. We will transfer our current work force in Blue Ash and add jobs in Lebanon, so we will have 33 employees when the new building opens. We anticipate adding more employees in stages over the next five years, and if demand continues to rise, we have the capability to expand our plant up to 90,000 square feet in the future.”

INX International Ink Co. was well represented at the event. In addition to Clendenning and Hrdlick, also participating were Bryce Kristo, senior vice president and chief financial officer; Joe Cichon, vice president of manufacturing; James Bailen, vice president of engineering; James Kochanny, vice president of Liquid Operations; Toru Kaneko, vice president of research & development; Shunsuke Onoue, assistant treasurer; Tom Socha, director of national accounts; Randy Robinson, Blue Ash general manager; John Socha, senior technical service; and Charlie Bean, sales representative.